- Author
- A Fine Line
- Title
- Gianrico Carofiglio
- Info
- Bitter Lemon Press
- Additional info
- 286 pp. - £8.99
You may wonder: what does a legal thriller do in such a column? Wasn’t it a “spiritual” column? Your question and concern are fair, but the answer is: no, this is not a spirituality column or, to be precise, it’s not only that. The purpose of this column is to show books and film, from any genre, that have the power and ability to push readers to inquire into themselves, to truly know themselves, to follow their own dreams and to realise that nothing is really unsolvable, nothing is really impossibile.
Yes, this is not what our family, teachers, and society taught us, but this happened because many of these people never knew any alternative path, and because it’s more convenient to keep the status quo and the people scared and depressed, so they can be better controlled and manipulated. We’ll eventually discuss this deeply, later on, though if you look online you will find much more information in this regard, and by far more experts than me… quantum physicists, authors such as Echkart Tolle or Gregg Braden, economists and “enlightened entrepreneurs”, such as Richard Branson or Seth Godin.
In this article, we’ll focus on a page-turning novel by Gianrico Carofiglio: A fine line. This was the first book I’ve read by Carofiglio, and I couldn’t help reading it all in one go. I’ve now got all the books featuring Guido Guerrieri.
The reason why I’ve decided to put this book in The Vertical Thought, it’s the novel’s ability to touch the depths of human nature and heart: integrity, honesty, the courage to truly inquire into one’s self and even change one’s own life, betrayal, justice.
Set in the cities of Bari and Lecce, the book tells the story of lawyer Guido Guerrieri, who has to defend judge Larocca Larocca when he suddenly becomes the subject of corruption allegations.
At the same time, Guido falls for the private investigator who helps him with the case, a very charming and – certainly not ordinary – woman. Lost in interrogation reports and courtrooms, we’re conquered by an involving and mysterious plot but, above all, we come to deal with human frailty, and we realise there is a part of us in each character as well as in each person around us, and viceversa.
We’re not all the same, despite the moralistic and prissy slogan we’ve been overwhelmed with, since we were born, but we’re all alike in our weaknesses, frailties, and human potential.
As a novel digging into the depths of human conscience and, therefore, into the readers’ intimacy, this is certainly a thought-provoking, funny, and suspenceful book. Plus, Carofiglio writes wonderfully, in an elegant yet flowing style, and each charactes has some quality to admire.
Without revealing much, in order to avoid spoilers, I leave you with some interesting quotes from the book. Enjoy.
“I remembered a sentence I had read a few weeks earlier: It’s never too late to be who you might have been.”
“Each of us, over the years, creates a character for ourselves. One we identify with, which corresponds to a positive idea of ourselves, which encapsulates the qualities we like to think we have.”
“The true measurement of time is the unexpected events, the kind that change everything and make you realize how many other things happened before that you weren’t aware of and should have been, and how many things you took for granted that will never happen again.”
